Saturday, December 28, 2013

TO OUR FANS ALL OVER THE WORLD!
It is because of all of you that “A Dramatic Tour Of Events” was such a success. We enjoyed playing to you all each and every night on the road!

As a special “Thank You” we are releasing a compilation of live tracks that were not included on “Live At Luna Park.” With these now being available, you have a complete documentation of all the songs that were played during the tour (with the exception of cover songs.)
Happy Holidays, and we look forward to having you “Along For The Ride” in 2014.
~Dream Theater

Saturday, August 31, 2013

I'm sure there are other places in the world where this type of thing takes place, but after my recent return visit to New Orleans, I am now convinced that I may have been to two of the worst. I was there once in 1998, but it was only for a day, and I don't recall feeling the way

I felt this time during that visit. I do, however recall feeling this way in Jamaica in 2007, when a Caribbean cruise we took stopped there as one of the three stops.

The locals ruin it for the tourists! For Jamaica the number one way the country makes money is probably due to tourism, but instead of making the people who visit feel comfortable, I wouldn't be surprised if there are many people who've visited Jamaica who feel the way I do. I remember being asked if I wanted to "smoke some of da good stuff, mon" within about 2 minutes of getting off the ship! I remember not even really feeling safe walking the streets. There were men standing around in the streets armed with AK-47s. Like holy crap, there's a guy with an AK-47! Oh wait, that's a cop. Wait a minute.. why do they have to have cops standing around in the streets armed with AK-47s? I remember feeling really uncomfortable being consistently pulled here and lured there by locals, who simply wanted to try to sell me some of their products: art, clothing, food, and other keepsakes.

The thing about Jamaica, though, is these people are trying to make an honest living selling stuff to tourists - they are just a little too aggressive in their manor of going about it.

Then there's New Orleans. In 48 hours in New Orleans I was approached probably 25-30 times for one reason or another. And not just in the French Quarter.

"Hey sir, can I bum a smoke?"

"I bet I can tell you where you got your shoes!"

"If you tell me your first name, I'll bet I can spell your last name."

One guy asked me about the Longhorns (I was wearing a Texas Longhorns t-shirt), and proceeded to make conversation for a good 5-minutes before he, too, asked to bum a smoke.

A guy in a devil costume hustled us for a dollar to take a picture with him, and another guy in a party patrol costume (I actually thought he was a cop before looking closely) hustled us for $10 for a "free" baseball cap. I wear a lot of caps, and loved the thought of a free cap, so this was cool at first. Then he handed my wife a pink cap, and asked in so many words to "show some love" for a couple of caps. He wanted $15 for both, so we handed the pink one back, and gave him $10 for mine. Hustled again!

The people who work at the bars in the French Quarter literally try to get in your way as you're walking by, and lead you into their establishment. They all have the best drink deals, the biggest, cheapest beers, and are the only ones who make their Hurricanes from scratch.

Several times it was just a homeless person asking for a couple bucks for a burger. "I have no job, and am starving.. will you buy me a burger & fries?" Some of them probably are homeless, jobless, and hungry, but I doubt they all are. Most of them are grifters.

In 48 hours, we witnessed two drug deals. One of the groups of guys actually had the nerve to ask us if we were looking to buy some weed as we were on a voodoo/ cemetery tour. They then proceeded to go make a deal with some dude a few minutes later less than 50 feet from us. The other one took place in a restaurant - with a female officer waiting in line to buy food!

The difference between Jamaica and New Orleans is that most of these people in New Orleans - outside of the very talented street performers - aren't trying to make an honest living with their product or service. They're hustlers looking to take advantage of nice, normal tourists.. like me.

New Orleans, if you want people to come visit your city, you might try cracking down on this type of thing. I don't know.. you could call it Felony Tourist Harassment, or something.

Friday, August 23, 2013

All these major sites, who host hundreds of thousands fantasy leagues (ESPN, NFL, Yahoo, CBS...), should definitely have an application on their site that allows the owner to UPLOAD an Excel (or Works) spreadsheet, which converts into your player rankings. No, not every person who playsImage Source

fantasy football is gonna spend the time to create his or her own spreadsheet (player list), but I guarantee for as many who do, there are probably the same amount who have one that someone else created for them.

Nevertheless, most people who play, and want to win, rank their players at the particular site prior to their draft, right? And it is those people - who have spent their time preparing - who deserve to save a few hours of their time by not having to drag & drop (or click up & down) 150+ players into a particular order.

Why is this not already a thing? We go apply for jobs, and sites instantly read our resumes, and not only show you the resume, but they take certain fields of information, and place that information where it is needed into their application!

Saturday, August 10, 2013

It's a ton of different tools in one, and weighs only 5.5 lbs. It's a shovel, an axe, a saw, a hammer, a nail-puller, a crowbar, a bottle opener, an ice pick, a machete, a personal protection weapon, and a chair - like those chairs golf spectators use sometimes. How cool is this?

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Approximate location of the camera that took this image is probably from a helicopter or plane very near, and above, this location, looking south. You can see the Christ the Redeemer statue in the very center, but way in the background. Beautiful!!

Lots of stuff about the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case you might now know about. (And the only thing "graphic" about this video is a picture of Trayvon Martin flipping double middle fingers, so don't not watch because you think there will be gore. There isn't.)

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